Jeffrey Levi Muted net flows into investment strategies were insufficient to overcome negative market performance worldwide in 2015, resulting in lower global assets under management, revenue, and operating margins for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008-2009. According to preliminary data from Casey Quirk & Associates, a specialist management consultant to asset managers…
Adrian Orr A group of six big sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, including the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS), has backed the launch of a long-term investment index, announced last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In a statement, Adrian Orr, NZS chief executive, said his NZ$30 billion fund was considering how…
Dennison Hambling With the Australian share market set to have its worst month since October 2008 at the height of the GFC and the total global market officially in a bear market, being off more than 20 per cent from its peak, one fund manager has provided some soothing advice. Don’t worry about the market,…
Lisa Gray and David Deverall Two of Australia’s largest fiduciary investors, Victoria Funds Management Corporation and NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) last week announced new chief executives to fill the vacancies from last year. VFMC has appointed former NAB executive Lisa Gray and TCorp has appointed former Perpetual Trustees chief executive David Deverall. Deverall resigned from…
(pictured: Debby Blakey) By Greg Bright Having an investment program which fits the culture of a super fund – aligning those investments with the beliefs of the members – is a way to attract and retain members in a competitive super landscape. Take impact investing as an example. The $32 billion HESTA health care industry…
Ana-Marie Lockyer In a cautionary tale of potential users of robo-advice websites and services, current bank customers are prepared to pay an average of only $53.50 for an online personal financial plan. And a significant proportion expect to pay nothing, according to a bank’s survey of its customers. The ANZ Bank survey, published last week,…
Trevor Dixon Distributed ledger technologies – usually beneath the headline-grabbing Bitcoin and blockchain examples – are going to present a major disruption to the operations of wealth management platforms and big super funds. So far, the big banks have made all the running. The others need to catch up. According to Trevor Dixon, a working…
The top six trends driving the outlook for the newly formed investment consulting and insurance giant Willis Towers Watson are combining to provide a generally “mediocre” outlook for markets over the medium term. In its January global markets paper the firm’s asset research team explains the three-to-five-year asset class weightings. It is a cautious outlook, with…
December inflows of US$52 billion tipped the global exchange-traded product (ETP) market into record territory last year with investors increasingly adopting more diversified and opportunistic strategies, the latest BlackRock on the sector shows. According to the December 2015 BlackRock ‘Global ETP Landscape’ report, annual flows hit more than US$350 billion over the calendar year –…
Jason Hsu Jason Hsu, a co-founder of California-based Research Affiliates, creator of the ‘fundamental index’ and promoter of smart beta, has bought a majority interest in the firm’s Asian business, which has been re-formed into a new company known as Rayliant Global Advisors. Hsu will remain the vice chairman and a shareholder of Research Affiliates,…
